The present invention relates to a breathable laminate fabric which is impervious to aqueous and organic liquids. The aforementioned fabric comprises a base layer formed from a porous absorbent material which is bonded at spaced points to a second layer composed of a series of parallel strips, impervious to aqueous or organic liquids, said strips being disposed transversely to the edges of the underlying base layer and having leading and trailing edges, extending longitudinally along said base layer in an overlapping manner such that the leading edge of one strip overlaps the trailing edge of the next succeeding strip of the series.
Optionally, a third layer may be bonded at spaced points to said second layer, thereby covering over the overlapping strips comprising said second layer. In the situation where the laminate fabric of the present invention comprises three layers, the first and second layers, the first and third layers, the second and third layers or the second layer alone are comprised of a thermoplastic material.
Regardless of whether there are two or three layers comprising the laminate fabric of the present invention, and regardless of whether the aforementioned layers are formed from thermoplastic or thermosetting materials, it is an essential requirement that the material comprising the second layer be impervious to water, aqueous and organic liquids.
Chemically treated woven and nonwoven fabrics used to repel aqueous or organic liquids are widely known. In addition to the expense involved in the chemical treatment of fabrics, a major problem is that many chemically treated fabrics are not breathable, so that when it is used in some form as a protective garment, it is uncomfortable for the wearer. Woven fabrics suffer from the same defect in that in order to make it a waterproof or an organic solvent proof material, the knit must be extremely tight so that the water cannot penetrate or permeate the interstices present in the woven fabric.